Editorial: 3/2/17

Thursday

Mar 2, 2017 at 5:01 AM

Worcester election already fun to watch The Nov. 7 municipal election is well over eight months away. There are still about seven months to go to the preliminary election. Most candidates still haven’t formally announced their intentions, but we’re slowly starting to get the picture. We know, for example, barring the unexpected, that Beautiful District 5 Councilor Gary Rosen will be challenged by Doug Arbetter. On the at-large side, Ed Moynihan has said he will jump in the race.

Other incumbents, such as Moe Bergman, are getting ready to kick off their re-election campaigns.

All indications are Mayor Joe Petty will run once more, but the big question is will At-Large Councilor Mike Gaffney challenge him once again? The two have staked out a bitter feud, and a second straight showdown between the two would no doubt be riveting.

The other as-yet-unanswered question is whether former At-Large Councilor and Mayor Joe O’ Brien will return to action. O’Brien told Worcester Magazine last year he was going to run either for Council or School Committee. Since then, he has remained pretty quiet.

Then there’s the cat-and-mouse game in which former Mayor Ray Mariano appears to be delighting. Also the former executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority, Mariano is currently a columnist for the Worcester Sun. His most recent column dealt with the many questions he has fielded regarding his mayoral intentions. Like a pro, of course, Mariano refrained from offering a firm answer. But he did put forth what he would do if he was mayor. At the very least, he has taken a shot at the current administration and put it on notice that, as Mariano sees it, things could be done much different.

Between now and May 16 – the last day to submit nomination papers to the Board of Election Commissioners – we will here rumors. We will see false starts that never get off the ground. We may well get a big surprise or two. In Worcester, local elections are as much about the speculation and rumor mill as they are about the actual results.

And, oh, how we love it.

A tip of the hat When Worcester Magazine learned it would be taking home 22 awards this year as part of the annual New England Newspaper & Press Association’s awards ceremony, it was a moment of great pride. When the night came, and those awards were handed out, the feeling became one of deep gratitude. Most of all, it is gratitude to our readers and advertisers for staying with us for all 40-plus years that Worcester Magazine has been telling the stories of Worcester and Central Massachusetts. They are, after all, why we are able to do what we do.

As important, they are why we do what we do. We are blessed to deliver the news, the humor, the entertainment, the opinions, the good, the bad and so much more. And we are blessed to have a dedicated staff that puts more into what they do than could ever possibly be relayed.

So this is a time to say thank you to our readers and advertisers. It is also a time to say congratulations to the Worcester Magazine staff: our publisher, our advertising executive, our sales reps, our media coordinator, our reporters, our photographer, our interns, our art director and assistant production manager, our controller, and most of all, to our owner for allowing us the freedom to do it all.

The awards received this year were not merely acknowledgments of individual efforts, which were many – they were a nod to everyone who has kept Worcester Magazine going all these years. Past owners, writers and other staff; all have shared in the successes – past, present and, dare we say, future.

Thank you does not seem enough, but we’ll say it as sincerely as we can: Thank you.